Niger Delta Militants

The Federal government has almost tripled the budget for amnesty programmes for militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta region of the country.

In a statement released by the presidency, an additional N30 billion ($98.47 million) is to be released to former militants with an extra N5 billion expected to be added at a later stage.

According to the statement, the increment is to ensure that the fragile peace which has been established in the restive oil heartland where militancy and related activities reduced oil production output by as much as a third last year, is maintained.

“Currently the Amnesty Office has  paid up all ex-militants backlogs of their salaries up to the end of 2016,” part of the statement said.

Under the 2009 Amnesty agreement, each ex-militant is entitled to a monthly stipend of N65,000 plus job training but there has been reports that the current administration could no longer keep their own end of the bargain because of cash crunch arising from the country’s economic recession.